Building a remote control

Here’s a homebrew remote control that [Jad Berro] is developing. He’s using a tank robot to test it out but eventually he plans to use it to control an RC plane thanks the 434 MHz wireless module inside. There’s no shortage of input, with two analog sticks from a PlayStation controller, several momentary push buttons, and some toggle switches. Although it’s not shown in the picture above there is also a 16×2 character display that serves as part of the interface. With a navigable menu the only limit to what you can do is the programming space available on the ATmega168 that inhabits the homemade Arduino board at the heart of the system. It certainly would give the robot remote from Friday a run for its money.

I fly model airplanes and the playstation controller will have 2 downsides:
1. the precision of a knob that is held down with the thumbs by using pressure will not geive much precision. maybe mount a short stick to it to gain more control over the knob, just like real aircraft controls.
2. The throttle force can’t be fixed, the knob will jump back to the middle.

The particular frequency he is operating on is set aside for television broadcast and walkie-talkie use. Now with the advent of Digital broadcast(and low wattage of the unit) in the US it’s not likely to interfere with television unless the transmitter is in contact with your TV antenna or cable box terminal.
And you’re not likely to attract the attention of the FCC unless you start trying to boost the signal and are very reckless in its operation.

Interesting, my father has been planning some very large RC vehicles and we had been talking about possible options for the controller. I don’t know that I would use a custom build like this for primary control for safety reasons, but could be a good option for secondary functions.